Month: May 2019

Luxemburg-Casco High School sent out a commencement-related news release this week, which stated that UW-Green Bay is the top choice for 2019 graduates to pursue higher education. Seventeen of the class of 143 have chosen UW-Green Bay. We are glad to have them! Go Spartans and Go Phoenix!

Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) office is taking event submissions for Fall 2019 Human Mosaic. The Human Mosaic is intended to collect and publicize UW-Green Bay programs that relate to diversity. Submissions are welcome from all four campuses. The Human Mosaic is traditionally distributed to UW-Green Bay students, staff, and faculty at the beginning of the semester. Please complete an online submission for each event. The deadline submission date is Tuesday, July 9 at 4:30 p.m. If you have any questions please contact Bao Sengkhammee at 920-465-2022 or email sengkhab@uwgb.edu.

Though you might not have noticed, more than 100,000 visitors dropped into Green Bay over the May 11th weekend, just for a quick bite and a rest on their way north. Not snow birds, but real birds. Hundreds of thousands of songbirds “overwinter” in Florida and Georgia (and Central and South America) then fly north to breed in one of the greatest mass migrations on the planet. The event celebrated as International Migratory Bird Day is every second Saturday in May.

Joining in this year’s celebration on May 11 events at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary included guided bird hikes, family activities to make a bird house or feeder and demonstrations on bird banding by a coalition of UW-Green Bay faculty, staff, alumni and students, with the help of the Northeastern Wisconsin Audubon Society, UW-Green Bay Audubon student chapter (Green Bay Audubon), U.S. Forest Service and Marinette County.

“This is our fifth year,” said Erin Giese, senior research specialist at the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity. “It’s a great way to interact with the public and the birds at the same time.”

Turns out there are good reasons to band a bird—estimating bird populations, tracking migration routes, determining how long birds live, gathering more precise information about individual birds (age and sex) and resighting purposes. Banding is also a very serious and carefully choreographed process. The permits and data base for all things banding originates at the U.S. Geological Survey. “We’re only permitted to band song birds and small landbirds, but you can band almost any kind of bird” Giese explains. (If a hummingbird or goose wanders into the net, they get a free pass.)

But you can’t even net a gnat without having a certified “master bander” on hand, who in this case is Bob Howe, the founding director of UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Center for Biodiversity. It’s under his office and the collective expertise of this band of bird-lovers that others can learn the skills needed and earn sub-permits to also engage in the handling and banding of birds.

Though this particular May Saturday is cloudy, the winds are calm and Howe is expecting they will stay busy. “It’s highly variable, this is shaping up to be a good day. We’ve had as many as 52 birds in one day.”

The net set-up resembles a volleyball game set up in a shrubby march and nearby forest. The birds fly into, and get captured in fine, black “mist nets.” Then the birds unharmed birds are safely and carefully extricated from the net, placed in an individual bag, taken to the banding table, processed and then released.

Busy at the net is UW-Green Bay Biology Professor Amy Wolf and alumnus Greg Cleereman. Extracting annoyed songbirds, especially chickadees, can be an exacting and arduous process. “They make a tight fist and they have very long toes.” Wolf explains while untangling the annoyed ball of feathers. “But better than robins,” Cleereman adds. “They poop on you.” The birds are then carefully (and individually) bagged and taken to the banding station.

From there a steady flow of parents, kids and dedicated birders watch the assembly line as birds move from out of the bag, to banding, to measurements, and eventually to freedom. Among those at the table, Tara Hohman (finishing up her graduate degree in Environmental Science and Policy) is being assisted by underclassman Jacob Shariff (limited on this, his first banding experience, to recording data only, but given an opportunity to hold and release a bird.) “We take a suite of measurements on these birds including height, weight wing length and tail length, bill width and tarsus (imagine part of a bird’s foot),” Hohman explains.

The big send-off happens when the bird is released by an onlooker, which consists of the bird being placed into an open hand to instantly fly away. Occasionally, a bird will sit for a second or two, to the amazement of the crowd.

Kids run through a badminton net and get “caught” but it’s not quite the same struggle to extricate them that real birds can be. Once released, their arm length and weight are recorded and they also receive a rubber “band” bracelet. “We’re just demonstrating the same process as the bird-banding booth. To show how and why we band birds.” She explains. And who knows? Maybe a future bird-bander or two was also captured.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Sheboygan Campus, held its annual Commencement ceremony on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. in the campus’ University Theatre. One hundred and six students earned two-year degrees from the Sheboygan Campus during the 2018-19 academic year, many of whom participated in the ceremony. Four UW-Platteville and two UW Oshkosh collaborative students also received diplomas during the ceremony.

Local business owner and entrepreneur, Grant Pauley, delivered the commencement address. Graduate of the Year, Lydia Luebke, was selected to represent the Sheboygan Campus class of 2019 as its student speaker. Joshua Becker completes his associate’s degree as the valedictorian. Read more in the news release.

After a nationwide search, it’s one of UW-Green Bay’s own that rises to the top. Provost Greg Davis announced today that Mathew Dornbush, most recently interim dean, has been named the permanent dean for UW-Green Bay’s Austin E. Cofrin School of Business.

“Matt’s incredible contributions as an interim dean, following on a strong foundation in his current role as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of graduate studies, are impressive and set the stage for a successful tenure in leading our business school,” Davis shared.

“Matt has a record of mission-focused, forward-looking leadership at every position he’s held at UW-Green Bay, including the interim dean position in the Austin E Cofrin School of Business,” said Chancellor Gary L. Miller. “As a distinguished biologist, he is a unique fit for this position, but he has proven to be capable in creating collaborations all over the University with the School of Business. The University and the region’s business community are set up for long-term success with Dean Matt Dornbush!”

Dornbush was named interim dean in August 14, 2018, after the retirement of Douglas Hensler. Prior to that role, he served as associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and director of Graduate Studies since 2015. A member of the faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, the biologist is also an active scholar and researcher. He was especially effective in his role reinvigorating and leading Graduate Studies. Four years ago, the campus was on the verge of losing its Carnegie classification as a master’s degree-granting institution because of low enrollment. This year UW-Green Bay will approach 200 master’s degree graduates and the University will be classified as a “large” master’s degree-granting institution.

Dornbush received his B.A. from Augustana College (Rock Island, Ill.), and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa) before joining UW-Green Bay in 2005. Dornbush brings a strong record of scholarly production, with more than $1 million dollars in external grant awards, numerous publications and more than 670 citations to his scholarly writings. In his role as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of graduate studies, he had responsibility for budgeting, extramural granting, faculty professional development and graduate programing. He has had significant community engagement responsibilities throughout his time as associate vice chancellor.

The dean of the Austin E. Cofrin School of Business provides academic and administrative leadership for and oversight over all School of Business programs. The Austin E. Cofrin School of Business is a community of teachers, scholars and learners dedicated to advancing the economic prosperity and entrepreneurial spirit of northeastern Wisconsin through partnership, impactful research, and quality educational programing. Dornbush is expected to lead the Austin E. Cofrin School of Business through the AACSB accreditation process. The School is expected to grow significantly as its academic programs and scholarship align with key economic and business sectors of Northeast Wisconsin. The dean will develop a vigorous program of external networking with business including establishing partnerships to connect the Cofrin School of Business to the local and regional economy.

Charlie Smith ’17 (Business Administration) will receive an entrepreneurial award at the Greater Green Bay Chamber’s Business Recognition Luncheon, Tuesday, June 4. As a student in spring 2015, Smith did an independent study with Prof. Lucy Arendt and Ryan Kauth to help with the start of his startup business, Pilotsmith. Pilotsmith, Inc. is a flight school/flight training facility located in Green Bay at the Austin Straubel Airport inside the Jet Air Group FBO.

All employees from all campuses are invited! “A Rolodex of Lived Experiences,” led by former Big 10 Coach of the Year, Angie Lee will be held Tuesday, June 18, in Phoenix B from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Here’s more:
Angie Lee was at the top of her game. It was 1996 and she had just led the University of Iowa to a stellar season in her first year as head coach of the women’s basketball team. She was living the basketball dream, until she became disenchanted and had to walk away. The rest is history – listen to Angie tell her story. The professional development workshop, sponsored by the Academic Staff Professional Development Programming Committee and the University Staff Professional Development Committee, is being offered to academic staff, university staff & faculty at no charge. Registration closes at midnight on June 13.

President Trump’s new immigration proposal to prioritize a “merit-based” system has people talking, including UW-Green Bay Prof. Alise Coen (Public and Environmental Affairs, Manitowoc and Sheboygan Campuses), interviewed recently on WPR. Listen here.

What started six years ago as a simple artistic expression of patriotism in his spare time has grown into something beyond Shane Henderson’s wildest entrepreneurial dreams.

Employed as a social media manager at Baileigh Industrial in Manitowoc, Wis. Henderson forged the foundation of his burgeoning Metal Art of Wisconsin business quite by accident in 2013.

“In the summer of 2013, I took a Baileigh Industrial plasma table home with me and started designing and cutting patriotic metal art in my garage,” Henderson said. “When I posted it on my personal Instagram page, it went viral overnight. That is when Metal Art of Wisconsin was born.”

Henderson points to the strategic use of social media as one of the main keys in launching Metal Art of Wisconsin into a thriving business.

“I have been the social media marketing manager for Baileigh Industrial for 11 years,” Henderson said. “I have built their social media to over six million followers between Facebook and Instagram. I used all of my social media experience to grow my own brand of metal art, which is now the largest metal art Instagram page on planet earth.”

Unique in its approach to patriotic-themed art, Henderson has designed Metal Art of Wisconsin to fill a distinct niche in the artistic marketplace.

“We design and sell patriotic metal art and concealment flags,” Henderson said. “Our custom designed art pieces hang on the walls of numerous studios, banks, museums, churches, hospitals, cemeteries and memorials all around the world, in addition to a long list of celebrities, professional athletes, musicians and politicians.

“We specialize in reproductions, logos and custom pieces,” he said. “We can make anything out of metal. We’ve had a passion for metal forming, metal shaping and plasma cutting for many years. We have a full staff of designers, CAD specialists and metal arts, who love to create ideas out of metal. We do it all for the love of metal.”

When Henderson found his business growing faster than his organizational structure would allow, he enlisted the services of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at UW-Green Bay to help guide him through a series of entrepreneurial challenges.

“Metal Art of Wisconsin was already going when I attended the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at UW-Green Bay entrepreneur’s class,” Henderson said. “The class definitely helped me in managing this monster I created. My books were a mess. I had 3,500 backorders. I had not enough management, not enough employees and not enough manufacturing to keep up with my marketing. Wisconsin Small Business Development Center Director Tara Carr and the guest speakers gave me critical suggestions to stabilize my business.”

With 19 employees, 205,000 followers on Instagram and over 250 products, Metal Art of Wisconsin moved into a 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and showroom at 1125 South Rapids Road in Manitowoc in late 2018.

The facility serves as an ideal headquarters for a skilled production team of designers, CAD specialists and metal artists to create patriotic steel and wood flags, custom and personalized laser engraved metal art, as well as the wildly popular “freedom cabinet,” which is a concealment flag cabinet featuring high density foam with an invisible lock.

Metal Art of Wisconsin is open from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For more information, visit www.metalartofwisconsin.com, call 920-717-0635 or email info@metalartofwisconsin.com.